How I did it: This was an absolutely jaw-dropping trip. You hear about how the animals are unafraid of humans, but when I was sitting on a beach surrounded by a hundred sleeping sea lion moms and pups it brought tears to my eyes. 

We hiked a lot, and encountered gobs of animals.  It was early January, and the beginning of mating season as you can see from this amorous sea turtle couple:

This is a great time to go because the animals are more active and you get to see their display behavior.  Also very cool are the marine iguanas which are the only true sea-going iguanas: they swim and feed on algae growing under water on the rocks.

The piece-de-resistance for me was the tortoises though. I have been wanting to see them since I was five years old.  

These are truly amazing creatures. We saw them in the wild and also got to visit the Charles Darwin Research Center which is where they're raising hundreds of babies (already with wrinkly necks!) Because of the introduced species that haven't been totally eradicated (like rats) the baby tortoises were getting eaten, so scientists bring the eggs to the center until the 5-year-olds can be released.
Another highlight was all the amazing snorkeling!  We saw sharks and penguins and flightless cormorants swimming, along with tons of fish. The sea lions are incredibly playful and love to dive and do flips and check out the "new" sea creatures.

J also chose this trip as the time to propose...he did at the top of Bartolome Island.

Even though it turned out we hiked up there at 6AM, he bravely went ahead! Here is the happy couple self-portrait:

Lessons & tips: J and I booked this trip almost a year ago! Do some research on what type of experience you want. We decided on a cruise because you can make the most of your time and travel to more of the remote islands where there is unique wildlife.  We wanted our cruise to be nature-focused (don't care about a casino etc.) so we looked for the quality of the guides and the provisions they make for the best-possible viewing of the animals.  We decided on Lindblad which is affiliated with National Geographic. The National Park is very strict and often our ship would be the only one on one side of an island for half the day.  This is good for your experience AND for the animals.

Resources:

• Lindblad Expeditions. (This wasn't cheap, but we decided for this one-in-a-lifetime destination we should do it right!)
  
• J.'s insane Canon 7D and a gazillion lenses including a borrowed 400mm.
  
• Moon Guide to Ecuador and the Galapagos (we spent some time in Quito prior to the cruise.)
  
• Smyth Jewelers :)
  
• Your own snorkel/mask. This was my first time bringing my own equipment and it improved the snorkeling experience immensely! I went to a dive shop and got fitted for one.
  
• An adventurous attitude and sense of curiosity and wonder about the natural world. If you remember to bring this you can't go wrong :)

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Jan 20, 2010, 03:33PM PST | 1 comment | 8 cheers